Apple TV Plus is approaching its first anniversary since launching in November, 2019 and although it has certainly fared better than the failed experiment Quibi, it still has a lot of ground to cover before it can compete in the big leagues with Netflix and Amazon.
But there are signs the maker of the prolific iPhone might be gaining some ground in the streaming space, thanks largely to one of its latest shows getting a lot of buzz: Ted Lasso.
A sport comedy, Ted Lasso is not my usual cup of tea. But having watched more than half of its premiere season, I haven’t been able to put it down.
Jason Sudeikis stars as Ted Lasso, an American football coach propelled into the world of U.K. football as the club’s owner seeks to sabotage the team she now owns following a bitter divorce by hiring a nincompoop who knows almost nothing about the game.
But, the club’s owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) starts to realize Lasso isn’t quite the no-nothing she originally thought, as he slowly reinvigorates team morale and spirit through an almost inhuman level of optimism.
I’ll say here I’m not a huge sports guy which is why I was a bit hesitant about starting a show that is pretty explicitly about sport.
But trust me, you don’t have to love sports to love Ted Lasso. I love Ted Lasso.
The show is anti-toxin for toxic masculinity. It inhabits a space famously full of machismo and misogyny and proudly, triumphantly says that’s not cool here.
Lasso, who is played perfectly by Sudeikis in role-he-was-born-to-play fashion, treats his team like a dysfunctional family and with tenderness and love is able to unite them. He works to better them on and off the field, rather than focusing solely on dominating the competition.
One of the major conflicts is the constant butting of heads between star players Jaime (Phil Dunster) and Roy (Brett Goldstein). Jamie, a hot-head show off who only cares about his self-image is at odds with Roy, the veteran captain who looks like he could blow a gasket at any time.
Lasso works his magic in his funny, dad-like way to make sure they confront their differences and the whole team benefits from it.
Ted Lasso shows men a gentler, kinder form of masculinity, one that isn’t based on beating others down, but by lifting everyone up. With his goofy wit and humour, Sudeikis made me enjoy something I never thought I would: A comedy about sports.
Top of the morning
I also decided to check out a show I left aside until it garnered some attention at the recent Emmy awards with eight nominations: The Morning Show.
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell, this was intended to be Apple’s big splash into streaming with a lot of star power and polish.
The Morning Show is explicitly a narrative about the Me Too movement through the lens of a fictional, though familiar, morning news program.
In the same vein as Matt Lauer’s dismissal from NBC’s morning program Today, Mitch Kessler (Carell), a co-anchor on the program is fired after its revealed he had sexually assaulted women at the network where he worked. His co-host Alex Levy (Aniston) is tasked with breaking the news to America.
What follows is a downward spiral of backstabbing, corporate corruption and cover-ups all while attempting to deliver a bubbly, innocuous and watered-down news program for the groggy populous.
Things take a turn when Bradley Jaxon (Witherspoon) eventually takes the co-anchor chair and with the help of executive Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup), tries to mix things up at the network.
But as the tree gets shaken, things get loosened and more details about Kessler’s depravity become clear as does the coverup that surrounded it.
Though occasionally ham-fisted in its attempt to address workplace sexual harassment and assault, The Morning Show succeeds overall.
Crudup is especially delightful to watch as an enigmatic and ambitious executive hoping to increase the show’s drama and fireworks purely because he enjoys watching it happen (and for the rewards that come with high ratings).
Is The Morning Show the best way to address Me Too’s broader implications? Not really. Is it still worth watching? Sure. You’ve probably got that free year of Apple TV Plus and there are worse things to watch.
